Nintendo is facing a new challenge in its ongoing legal dispute against Pocketpair’s open-world survival game, Palworld. Reports indicate that one of Nintendo’s patents pertinent to the case has been rejected by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) for lacking originality.
In September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company officially announced their intent to file a patent infringement lawsuit in Japan against Palworld. This suit focuses on three core patents granted by the JPO: two concerning monster capture and release mechanics, and one related to riding in-game characters.
While these patents were approved in 2024, they are actually based on older Nintendo patents from 2021. It appears Nintendo specifically tailored these newer divisional patents to combat Palworld’s alleged infringement of their original concepts. The legal battle has continued, with Nintendo even modifying a mount-related patent mid-lawsuit and arguing that community-created mods should not be considered ‘prior art’.
However, one of the monster capture patents Nintendo submitted in 2024 has hit a roadblock. In October, the JPO issued a non-final decision to reject the application, citing a lack of an inventive step. Their reasoning referenced several older games with similar mechanics that predated Nintendo’s 2021 priority date. These examples included ARK (released in 2015), Monster Hunter 4 (2013), and the Japanese browser game Kantai Collection (2013). Interestingly, even Pocketpair’s own Craftopia (2020) and Niantic’s Pokémon Go (2016) were brought up as examples demonstrating the patent’s lack of originality.
Although this non-binding, non-final rejection by the Japan Patent Office won’t directly decide the lawsuit, it could significantly influence it, as noted by GamesFray. This is because the rejected patent application 2024-031879 is closely linked to two primary monster capture patents (JP7505852 and JP7545191) that form the core of the case against Palworld.
Consequently, the JPO’s decision might cast doubt on the validity of Nintendo’s monster capture patents in the lawsuit, potentially strengthening Pocketpair’s defense. This could support the argument that Palworld’s monster-capture mechanics aren’t copyright infringement but rather an evolution of similar systems that have existed in various games for decades. IP consultant Florian Mueller at GamesFray highlighted this by stating, “The fact that the patent examiner is now looking at real-world games as opposed to just patent documents and articles considerably ups the ante for Nintendo.”
Earlier this month, former Capcom game developer Yoshiki Okamoto seemingly spoke out against Pocketpair and Palworld regarding the legal battle, which caused a backlash from the public. In a video he posted on his channel on September 27, Okamoto expressed that Palworld had “crossed a line that should not be crossed, and I don’t want the world to become a place where this kind of thing is acceptable.”
Last month, Pocketpair revealed Palworld: Palfarm, shortly after Nintendo announced its own cozy farming simulation, Pokémon Pokopia. Pocketpair had previously stated on September 16 that Palworld’s official 1.0 release would occur sometime in 2026.
At GDC in March, IGN conducted an extensive interview with John “Bucky” Buckley, Pocketpair’s communications director and publishing manager. This followed his conference talk, ‘Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.’ During their discussion, Buckley candidly addressed several of Palworld’s challenges, including allegations of using generative AI and claims of stealing Pokémon models for its Pals. He also commented on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit, admitting it “came as a shock” and was “something that no one even considered.”
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor, and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also contributed articles on Japanese culture and movies for various publications.